[Publius6961]

I just realized that I have a tenuous grasp of "settlement" as opposed to "cities". Are these moving targets? or do archeologists have their own private language?

That sounds positively modern, that 5500 years... Here they are, elsewhere arguing whether man has been in the Americas 12,000 or 25,000 years.

[SunkenCiv]

Well said.

[Young Werther]

The Great Pyramid in Egypt dates to about 3200 BC. Certainly Egyptian Cities predate this Syrian City?

[Fraxinus]

I have a tenuous grasp of "settlement" as opposed to "cities". Are these moving targets? Most definitely moving targets.
I believe that historically what denoted the difference between City, Town, and Village was the legal relationship the settlement had to the surrounding jurisdictions. Today in many ways these terms can be used interchangeably although they do connote differences in size of the community.

[zeugma]

Too many uses of the word "scientific" in this article for my tastes. In my experience, constant repetition of that term means someone is doing something that has little, or no resemblance to science.

Also, did anyone else notice this "typo"?

 The neighboUrhoods of Uruk,

Looks to me like a punster struck. :-)